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DoorMat Media, LLC

Hello again, hope all is well. I think your idea has great potential but your time limit of 14 weeks may be a bit unreasonable unless you have time and energy to really hussle and are very organized. Three things you may want to consider:

a} entice people to open the bag with some kind of incentive, drawing for a vacation, car, gold coin, dinner for two, or whatever.

b} make sure that there are coupons in the bag each month for local food, plumbing, hair cuts, auto repair, and oil changes. Even if you have to give these retailers a break even or small loss type deal, their coupons will add value to your doormat bag.

c} Business to business advertising is often more expensive than business to consumer advertising. Your business model allows you to also offer a business targeted ad product, so long as the local laws do not prevent it. Attorneys, web designers, telecom companies, computer companies, and others need to target businesses.

One more thing, you can also develop a welcome to the area bag (get the list from infousa.com) that you deliver along with your normal deliveries. There are a large number of companies that advertise to new movers since they need so many services and are just getting acquainted with the area.

I `d like to tell you about my business I just formed and how it works and please let me know what you think. Any comments, ideas, suggestions, critiques, etc are encouraged.

The business name is DoorMat Media, LLC. We offer an advertising vehicle that I feel is very unique, DoorMat bags. You provide us with your marketing material (pen, magnet, cd rom, casino chip, etc) or we can design & print a 5.5x8.5 full color glossy, double sided advertisement for you. Whichever way you choose, we will package your item along wth other local and national companies into our DoorMat bags (a thick plastic bag with DoorMat Media info printed on it) to consumers homes in Connecticut. Great alternative to direct mail as we charge a fraction of the cost of direct mail. Also provides a way to deliver promotional items that cannot be delivered cost effectively elsewhere. To begin, we will reach approx. 196,000 homes in Connecticut in 57 towns. Minimum run with you providing item will be just 500! For 5.5x8.5 piece, minimum run is 5000. To begin, I do not have it set up to offer promo items mysef, but am searching for a company to join as a reseller. Thoughts, questions? Thank you for reading....

Yes it is similiar to ValPak, the difference being you can have us distribute things that cannot be sent in the mail, promo items for your company etc. Also, ValPak is pretty stale after all these years so it give advertisers another option and a better chance of being read. Direct mail pieces can be delivered in the bags for much less than mailinging them. Price is .10-.12 per

Regarding distribution: I have already contracted with a local newspaper with a circulation of approx. 196,000 to do the deliveries for me (distribution is obviously the hardest part of doing this) So eventually I will need to put my own circulation department together but to begin I can use them.

I think things got mixed up here because I wasnt clear as to what you were saying not looking for you to run my business for me. I wrote that just to ask you to please clarify what you were saying as I didnt understand what you were talking about. Im sorry of we had some miscommunication...

Thank you for the reply. You used the word interesting, that can`t be a good thing. Interesting usually means "I don`t like it".

Right now, we are planning for just one delivery, and will gauge the response to decide how often from there, but I agree with you 100% and would not do it more than quarterly regardless of the response. Instead of doing it more often, I will concentrate on doing it in other towns as I currently will be able to provide service in 57 towns.

DuffyMac, I know I sound overly anxious for feedback, because I am. Not because I have doubts or even that I think it is the best idea since sliced bread, but only because feedback can do nothing but help me. Positive responses help to inspire and can sometimes teach me something and most usually negative responses teach me something also. I don`t expect everyone to love the plan, I can deal with that, no problem. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my threads. I do plan to send you a message dmac so I can find out what you were saying!

I was waiting on receiving the accurate circulation numbers that I can get the bags delivered to when you account for single copy deliveries only. I got the number on Friday. I need to now just put a few final info sheets together and I can begin sales calls. Just about a 2 weeks away...

1. Your concept is a variation on "valu pak" (which is delivered by the post office) and a couple of others, so you need to be clear on the "differentiators". If "price" is the primary one - then you need to be sure that you can deliver for less than the competition.

2. Your business model may need some further development, to the point where you have a complete set of basic financial documents.

3. If you plan to hand deliver these (as I infer from your post) then manpower will be a significant consideration.

I`m not saying this is a good or bad idea - I don`t have enough information. On the surface is is intriguing.

DoorMat -
It sounds like an interesting concept. However, I am curious to know how many times you intend to distribute the package to each home. Since most of us are inundated with junk mail these days, recipients might be put off if they are constantly receiving the packet on their doorstep as well. But if it were bi-annually or even quarterly I personally woudn`t mind. Just a thought...